The Tanzania National Parks Authority (TANAPA) continues to prevent villagers from farming or herding cattle in an area marked for expansion of a national park, the U.S.-based Oakland Institute said in a report released July 1. Ruaha National Park is the site of a long-running dispute between roughly 80,000 people who live in the proposed expansion zone and the Tanzanian government, which issued a notice in 2023 that it intended to double the park’s size to 2 million hectares (4.9 million acres).
The World Bank was drawn into this dispute through a now-defunct project meant to boost tourism at regional parks including Ruaha, which attracts fewer visitors than other more famous conservation areas like the Serengeti.
Ruaha is known for its large herds of elephant and buffalo and is home to roughly 10% of Africa’s remaining lion population. At 20,000 square kilometers (7,700 square miles), including the expansion, Ruaha is currently Tanzania’s largest national park.
After two villagers filed a complaint in 2023, an investigation by the World Bank’s inspection panel found that its safeguard policies on resettlement and human rights had not been adequately followed. The bank canceled the project early this year.
The cancellation was followed by a management action plan (MAP) intended to provide redress for villagers affected by the project. Under the plan, $2.8 million will be provided to some of the impacted communities for alternative livelihood projects and development.
“This fund will directly benefit 10,000 vulnerable community members in Mbarali district, Mbeya region, including water user associations, smallholder farmers and livestock keepers,” Nathan Belete, World Bank division director for Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe, told Mongabay.
An additional $110 million will be directed to a nationwide climate action project including communities in the Ruaha expansion zone. The plan also establishes a new grievance mechanism for people living around Ruaha to report human rights abuses by TANAPA’s rangers.
But Oakland Institute director Anuradha Mittal said the plan doesn’t adequately compensate those affected.
“The MAP is a shameful, carelessly patched together plan that fails to respond to the severity of the Inspection Panel’s findings,” Mittal told Mongabay.
According to related documents, bank officials have been assured that no resettlements will happen around Ruaha in the “foreseeable future.”
However, the recent Oakland Institute report says TANAPA rangers continue to prevent villagers in the expansion zone from grazing their cattle. The report also says rangers shot and killed two people since the spring. Police have reportedly taken four rangers into custody after the incidents.
A TANAPA spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
“As one of Tanzania’s largest financers, the bank holds major leverage and undeniable influence over decisions made by the government, especially as they directly relate to bank-funded projects. It must use this power to ensure the government reinstates previous park boundaries and provides adequate compensation and redress to those affected,” Mittal said.
Banner image: Maasai herder in Morogoro, near Ruaha National Park. Image by Shengena Killel/ILRI via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
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